No doubt about it -- Florida Republicans loathe President Barack Obama and are looking forward to defeating him in November.

A Sunshine State News Poll of likely Republican presidential primary voters finds Obama floundering badly with these voters. Only 6 percent of Florida Republicans in the poll, conducted by Harrisburg, Pa.-based Voter Survey Service (VSS), approve of Obama’s performance in the White House, while 89 percent of them disapprove of the job he has done.

Washington, D.C.-based GOP consultant Alexandra Fitzpatrick claims Obama's Florida numbers are among the worst she's seen. "A Democratic incumbent president would never expect to break even," she said. "But at an 89 percent disapproval rating, President Obama can ring all the doorbells he likes, he's going to be hard-pressed to find a friend on the other side of the street."

Jim Lee, president of VSS, told Sunshine State News that Obama’s low marks with Florida Republicans will impact campaign strategy in the general election.

“With numbers this polarizing for the president among voters of the opposing party, Obama’s best hope is to either demonize the eventual GOP nominee and hope some of them stay home in the fall (if it’s Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich), or, conversely, hope that the eventual nominee is a hard-right conservative like Rick Santorum or Rick Perry (unlikely though) and use this as a way to mobilize turnout among both base Democrats and swing voters who are more mainstream on social issues,” noted Lee.

“The third, and possibly best, strategy for Obama is to hope a third candidate (Ron Paul, etc.) runs in the general election as an independent who can appeal to conservatives unhappy with the GOP nominee, which could help Obama win key states with less than a majority of the vote," said Lee. "The polling suggests that if Romney is the nominee, it’s very likely that we will see GOP voters unite around him because of the extreme unpopularity of the president and the economic uncertainty facing the nation.”  

When asked how Obama impacted their choice in the presidential primary, which will be held on Jan. 31, 59 percent of Florida Republicans said that throwing out the Democratic incumbent was their chief concern, while 33 percent said they are looking to back a proven conservative.

“Validating Romney in the poll is the fact that most voters say beating Obama is more important than electing a true conservative, and Romney is winning a commanding 57 percent of these,” Lee told Sunshine State News. “Romney even leads (albeit narrowly) among those who say electing a true conservative is most important -- getting 27 percent, compared to Gingrich (25 percent), Santorum (19 percent) and Paul (12 percent). This shows many conservatives are OK with him.”

The poll of 1,266 likely Republican primary voters was taken Jan. 11-14 and had a margin of error of +/- 2.75 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.

The poll also found that former Gov. Romney of Massachusetts leads the pack of presidential candidates in the Sunshine State with 46 percent, followed by former U.S. House Speaker Gingrich with 20 percent and former U.S. Sen. Santorum of Pennsylvania with 12 percent. U.S. Rep. Paul of Texas takes 9 percent and Gov. Perry of Texas lags with 3 percent.

Republicans insist they will have a chance to pick up Florida -- and a number of other swing states that Obama carried in 2008 -- come November.